Liquid EP

Boysnoize; 2012

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Music from this release

It's been a good year for rapper-producer Le1f. His Greedhead-inscribed Dark York mixtape was one of the most talked-about avant-rap releases. He was in the right place at the right time to get swept up in the wave of trend pieces about the number of queer rappers emerging out of New York City. And the video for his skronking booty-clap anthem "Wut" became an unlikely Internet meme thanks in large part to his formidable twerking skills and repertoire of anime power-up poses. If we've learned anything about Le1f during all this, it's that he has an aversion to being pinned down or pigeonholed. So it shouldn't come as a surprise then that the Liquid EP, his followup to Dark York, finds him shifting gears, changing lanes, and generally refusing to make Dark York, Part 2.

Liquid once again pairs Le1f with his frequent collaborator Boody, who contributed a couple of tracks to Dark York. Like most of the album, both sounded like hit rap songs beamed in from a few years into the future, but recently when the two have worked together they've gotten even further out, like the beat for "Fuckin the DJ" that they made for Mykki Blanco, which alternates between near-ambient verses and an almost violently psychedelic chorus.

The four original compositions on Liquid (five on the vinyl version) stick more to the former mood. The instrumental opening track, "Jelly Fish", uses a splashing sound, possibly synthetic, as one of its primary rhythmic elements, alongside some Kanye-ish hand drum samples. A reverb-laden synth provides what little melody there is in the song, a tone-bending run up and down a scale that could be the hook from a lost rave anthem, or maybe lifted from a Konono N°1 song. Otherwise the spaces where lead instruments are found in typical songs are taken up by electronic clicks and gurgles, washes of white noise, and delay effects feeding back on themselves. Taken as a whole, it sounds like a chill-out room curated by seapunks.

With its hypnotic polyrhythmic beat and metallic clangs, the second cut, "Buoy", comes off slightly harder by comparison, but it's still a very spacey track-- every time the mood starts getting too elevated most of the instruments drop out and the whole thing drifts for a few seconds on its own echoes before the beat kicks in again. Two-thirds of the way through what sounds like a chattering synthesizer shows up, and slowly reveals itself to be Le1f rapping through a vocoder, his voice so heavily altered that you can't make out the lyrics. It's only in the song’s last minute that Liquid finally delivers an actual understandable vocal part, which happens to be nautically themed.

After the ambient diptych of "Jelly Fish" and "Buoy", "Soda", sounds like a straight up pop rap song, if only by virtue of having a steady beat and vocals throughout. In fact, the beat relies heavily on actual literal popping sounds arranged in cascades that are presented with little embellishment other than Le1f's rap, which has a repetitive quality that wedges it firmly into the brain. It's easy to imagine Nicki Minaj listening to it and taking notes for her next record. (The video, centered around vogue-ing and soda-pop bukkake, has already started to give "Wut" a run for its viral money.)

"Sweet Tea" has been on Le1f's SoundCloud since before Dark York, and it sounds very much like original-flavor Le1f. That’s a good flavor, and it's a catchy song, but after the first three cuts it feels tame. Between it and the two remixes (Cedaa's version of "Sweet Tea" and MikeQ and Divoli S'vere's clubby take on "Soda") that follow, the EP's ending feels like a glance over the shoulder at what Le1f's accomplished so far. He deserves it, but what you walk away from during Liquid's stronger moments is the idea that, right now, the best direction for him to be facing is forward.